Way to improve sli performance?

So having just installed XP with SP3, the first game I installed was Morrowind GOTY because it had some performance issues with Vista. I start it up and experience the same problems, that is every 20 seconds or so I was getting a 2-5 second lag outdoors or when changing cells. This was the same problem I had with Vista. It mostly got solve with a hotfix, VISTA hotfix kb940105 [virtual address space] to be exact.

Now I took it out of SLI and it ran more or less fine, the pauses turned into a stutter at most. I've yet to try other games, I just don't have them on me to install right now.

Could it be SP3?

Is there an XP equivalent to Vista's kb940105 or other game related hotfixes for XP that are hiding out there?

 

I doubt it is XP SP3. Aside from bundling all the updates since SP2, it only offered four minor functions:

"Network Access Protection compatibility. Announced years ago, this feature allows Windows XP machines to interact with the NAP feature in Windows Server 2008. This functionality is built into the RTM version of Windows Vista as well.

Product Key-less install option. As with Windows Vista, new XP with SP3 installs can proceed without entering a product key during Setup.

Kernel Mode Cryptographics Module. A new kernel module that "encapsulates several different cryptographic algorithms," according to Microsoft.

"Black hole" router detection algorithm. XP gains the ability to ignore network routers that incorrectly drop certain kinds of network packets. This, too, is a feature of Windows Vista." (Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows)

The only thing I can think that would come close to affecting your game performance would be the Kernel Mode Cryptographics Module, but it only encapsulates the algorithms, doesn't change them.

 

Hey maybe if you try and disable the antialiasing or AA. With my X205sli1 I upgraded the driver to 174.31 and noticed with all graphics set to max it would lag and get choppy with AA enabled. The release notes for forceware drivers say it has AA issues. Funny cause the stock drivers that came with my computer could push Oblivion Elder Scrolls maxed with AA enabled. Might work.

 

I had no AA going. It's no big deal for Morrowind though, they recommend a Geforce 2 GTS or better. Care to go over to gpureview.com and compare one Geforce 2 GTS to one 8600M GT? It really is quite funny how lopsided it is.

Just so long as this is a Morrowind only problem I don't really care. I was just asking, because I know the Vista memory hotfix [and the SLI hotfix as well] isn't an automatic update.